IMAGE OF NURSING IN SCIENCE FICTION LITERATURE (FUTURISTIC ROLES).
Contributors: University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Published: 1993
Number of pages: 310
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.; Literature, Modern.; Sociology, General.
Description: Content analysis of 154 novels and short works of science fiction literature was used to identify the image of nursing. Information on demographics, physical characteristics, personality traits, professional attributes, nursing activities, nonnursing activities, stresses, conflicts, coping methods, and relationships of 777 nurse characters, 622 individuals, and 155 groups was found. The 25,970 statements related to the nurse characters were coded into major categories and analyzed for subcategories, trends, and images.

Most of the nurse characters (75%) were merely background figures. The largest single category was relationship (25%).

The nurses were mostly human (82.5%), female (45%), and worked in traditional white uniforms. The nonhuman nurse characters (17.5%) included nonhumanoid alien beings, humanoid alien beings, and mechanical nurses. All of the nurses were depicted as likeable and competent.

Nursing activity images were communicator, technician, nurturing mother, independent practitioner, handmaiden, guardian, counselor, supervisor, servant, socializing agent, student, teacher, and part of the background activity. In the nonnursing activities, data indicated that the characters led interesting, diverse, and challenging lives.

Stresses stemmed from concerns over patients and threats to personal safety. Conflicts focused on power struggles at work and dating/love relationship problems outside work. Problem solving skills and taking action were used to cope with stresses and resolve conflicts. Work relationships were collegial in nature. Nonwork relations supported a romantic interest image. Negative trends included the impression that little or no training is required to be a nurse, nurses do not stay in nursing as a career, and nurses have little power or authority in the health care system. While the overwhelming image presented was a positive one as indicated by the variety, diversity, and universality of nursing as a profession, the data indicate a need for nursing to educate the public about nursing practice, particularly reaching those within society who influence others through their creative and imaginative works.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 54-07, Section: B, page: 3554.

Thesis (D.S.N.)--UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA AT BIRMINGHAM, 1993.

School code: 0005.